Choosing coffee for your hotel: Key things you need to consider

Coffee is a growing industry and not one that hotel businesses need to miss out on. The market is growing, and coffee lovers are now more knowledgeable about the product and expect a consistent high standard in their coffee experience. To avoid falling behind, the hospitality industry can benefit from recognising these trends and ensuring they are providing only the best for their guests.

This guide takes you through considering a coffee partner for your hotel business, and how you could improve your coffee offering for your guests.

Make sure it’s great coffee

First things first: you’ll want to ensure the coffee itself is great. Whatever the reason for your guests’ visit, they will keep coming back for more if they know that the coffee you are serving tastes the best. Consumers are also looking for responsible coffee, so look for a provider who offers a range of accreditations so you can be proud to serve an ethically sourced product.

If you are looking to serve coffee in your bar or restaurant area, consider whole bean coffee, prepared through a traditional machine and by a trained barista, for the best possible experience for your guests. Training will be important to your team, so choose a supplier who can give great training on how to serve top quality coffee.

Like they say, it’s location, location, location. Placing a well-branded coffee shop or bar near the entrance of your hotel attracts guests through the door. You can give your business the look and feel of a traditional Italian coffee house with branded cups, trays, blackboards, waiter and barista aprons and attract authentic Italian coffee lovers with pavement signs and parasols for outside.

Don’t forget about events and promotions: think coffee mornings and high tea. Choose a supplier that can offer equipment such as teapots and trays to make teatime a real treat.

Cater for a range of different guests

It’s also important to think about who your potential guests are to make sure they are receiving the best possible experience.

Serve huge numbers at events and conferences without the stress

Events such as conferences and weddings mean you need to serve a lot of coffee to large number of guests efficiently and quickly. Offering filter coffee is a fast and simple solution, which has seen a popular revival of late due to the improvement in filter products and the filter process itself.

Machines that make sense for your hotel

For hotels with a medium to high coffee output, consider a commercial filter (or bulk brew) machine – they are robust pieces of equipment that can be placed almost anywhere. For lower quantities and for more flexibility, look for individual filter coffee machines that you don’t need to connect to the water mains.

Consider self-serve machines for guests to use at their leisure

Maybe you are looking for something self-serve for your reception or for your buffet area? In this case, a bean-to-cup machine will give you barista-style coffee without the barista.

Consider the space you have available; you’ll want to make sure you have enough room for the machine itself as well as cups, sugars etc. Some machines can hold fresh milk, so you need to think about refrigeration.

In-room coffee

You’re possibly considering a solution to offer coffee in-room or within a conference suite, so capsule machines may be your best bet for this. Look for one offering a diverse range of capsules to cater for all tastes.

Reduce wastage by providing real cups as opposed to disposable where possible, or use biodegradable disposable cups. Again, look for a supplier that offers an accredited and certified coffee.

Support and aftercare matters

Don’t forget that owning any hot drink machine means someone will need to take responsibility to clean and maintain it regularly to ensure that it runs as expected. A provider who can train you and your team on how to properly look after your machine is critical, as well as them being able to professionally service your machines should anything go wrong.

How we can support your hotel

Tchibo Coffee Service has over 26 years’ experience providing hot drink solutions to the hotel industry, from coffee brands and equipment to machines, servicing and training. Some of our customers include Hilton, Radisson Edwardian, Hotel Du Vin and Handpicked Hotels.
If you want to find out more about how Tchibo Coffee Service can support your hotel business, give one of our friendly team a call, or fill in a form here and we’ll get in touch.